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| Linus and Charlie "A Charlie Brown Christmas", 1965 |
What's Christmas really all about?
This ultimate Christmas ethics question sounds like it's coming straight from a Charlie and Linus theoretical discussion at the brick ledge. Mind you, Charlie Brown actually does ask this question in the television special, and Linus answers with his lisp speech of Luke 2: 8-14. I love that scene.
I can't help but feel like it was a simpler time back in 1965. They definitely didn't have the crazed malls like we do now filled with grumpy parents shopping for their spoiled child that wants a new phone to dispense their life into for the rest of their days. Too dark? I just finished the Smartphone article, still have it on the mind. I stand by that point, though! It just doesn't have the same, I guess, "merry" feeling these days. Although I'm only eighteen, who am I to say "these days"... but movies like Charlie Brown or It's A Wonderful Life open a window to see what Christmas could have been like in the past, and the past looks very merry.
I believe Christmas is a refresh button on life. With the time off, it sets in what life is truly about. It's not work, school, or whatever alternate life you are a slave to for the majority of the year. It's about your friends that walk with you through the unknown, the family that supports you when you fall down. It's about finally looking up from your desk and seeing the gorgeous world you live in. Whether or not it came from an all-loving God and son that died for your sins, at least we can all agree that, for the most part, it's beautiful. We can make whatever we want of it. Now this refresh button has been coated in different ways throughout time; this time happens to be a coating of boxing day blowouts and Santa cos played by thousands in crowded shopping malls. That sucks about Christmas today, but it would be worse to just ignore it. Instead of keeping Christmas' definition locked with the money around it, focus on the refresh button. Focus on the break you get to take in what life really means to you. I believe that is what I see in those classic Christmas movies.
